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Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried: Chapter Analysis

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Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried: Chapter Analysis
“The Vietnam War was arguably the most traumatic experience for the United States in the twentieth century. That is indeed a grim distinction in a span that included two world wars, the assassinations of two presidents and the resignation of another, the Great Depression, the Cold War, racial unrest, and the drug and crime waves.”(Donald M. Goldstein) Tim O'Brien, the author of the book, The Things They Carried, goes into his memory to his time serving in The Vietnam War. It explains his experiences with his fellow teammates and everything they went through. Being a nonlinear book, it gives you an almost real experience to life while being a soldier in Vietnam. O`Briens intended audience was future generations and he discussed shame/guilt and morality/death. In the chapter “In the Field” Shame and Guilt is an underlining theme. Throughout the chapter O'Brien tells the story of his platoon's mission to find their fallen comrade Kiowa after dieing in a firefight. The chapter is told from several perspectives from different soldiers, and on multiple occasions the soldiers express their guilt with the thought that …show more content…
Tim O'Brien feels a great deal of guilt when he thinks about dodging the Vietnam draft. They physical and emotional aspects of dodging the draft made O`Brien fear fleeing the United States to avoid going to Vietnam. Ultimately he made the decision to go to Vietnam and honor his country. The people in O'Brien's life, and the opinions they possessed influenced his overall decision and later added to the shame and guilt he felt. “It was as if there was an audience to my life, that swirls of faces along the river and in my head I could hear people screaming at me” (O`Brien 57) O'Brien was guilted into staying in the United States because of the opinions of his peers, but at the end of the day the guilt ate away at him to honor the draft and serve his home
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